Vance slams Walz over military record
OutKick writer Mary Katherine Hamm and Democratic strategist Tim Hogan break down JD Vance’s criticism of Harris’s vice presidential nominee Tim Walz’s military record.
It’s all about atmosphere.
A word not usually associated with presidential politics — more associated with late-night parties and bongs — is now the only thing that matters. At least if you’re Kamala Harris.
She was on the cover of Time magazine—an admirable sketch that made her look like she was already president—because of “the fastest climate change in the history of American politics.”
Despite running mate’s ultra-liberal record, most media is waltzing in
Is this all it takes to win? The vice president is surging in the polls, raising tons of cash, becoming a cultural phenomenon, relatively successfully launching Tim Walz and will get a further boost at the Democratic National Convention, which didn’t What a disadvantage.
But after that, will it prove to be a sugar high? Will her approval ratings fall back to their previous levels in the face of Republican attacks?
For now at least, Donald Trump appears to be off balance, with his attacks on Harris not lasting and his public nostalgia for Joe Biden after spending years preparing to run against the ailing 81-year-old president. Biden.
What’s more, with Biden’s withdrawal, the 78-year-old Trump is now an old man in the race. Many experts who spent time defending Biden’s mental acuity now believe Trump is losing it.
Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris side by side. (Getty Images)
I think he refuted that in his hour-long press conference, although he does have a tendency to spout nonsense. It reminded me of our recent interview at Mar-a-Lago, where he was sharp and no-nonsense on at least 15 topics.
But the media, which has been anti-Trump for nine years, lashed out at the reporter. “Weird,” says the Huffington Post. “Insanity,” Rolling Stone said.
But how does it help that he said his inauguration had as many, if not more, audiences than MLK’s famous 1963 “Dream” speech?
The former president was widely ridiculed when he told a news conference that he once experienced an emergency helicopter landing with Willie Brown, but Kamala’s ex-boyfriend denied this. But it turned out to be an emergency landing — with another black politician from California. He got the names mixed up.
In fight to define Harris, Trump launches democratic coup, ad calls her ‘dangerous liberal’
Trump has been running as a strongman, a fighter, a leader of a movement who moved the Republican Party away from its Reaganite roots. Has Harris allowed unstable Republicans and independents who dislike his behavior to find safe haven in her?
Allies have implored him to be more focused, including two of Trump’s former top aides, Larry Kudlow and Kellyanne Conway. On Fox Business, Kudlow asked his former boss: “Don’t walk away, don’t call her stupid and all kinds of names, stay in the message?”
“President Trump’s winning formula is clear. It’s fewer insults, more insight and policy contrast,” Conway said.
Trump, who spoke with Musk for two hours on X amid technical glitches, said Harris’ Time magazine cover sketch “looks like the most beautiful actress ever,” And she looks a lot like Melania. He turned around and called Kamala “a beautiful woman.” (Musk said views peaked at 73 million.)
Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald J. Trump with his running mate and vice presidential candidate at Van Andel Arena in Grand City on July 20, 2024. U.S. Senator J.D. Vance (R-OH) (not pictured) held his first public campaign rally. (Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)
One result of Trump’s media blitz was that it prompted Harris to finally take substantive questions from her press corps (and this was after she gave 70 seconds of brief answers). He is standing up to a media establishment that treats Harris like a queen.
I’m not going to take anything away from Harris and the shrewd way she’s handled the past three weeks. After watching several of her TV interviews while Biden was still campaigning, I told people she had improved tremendously from the hesitant and overly cautious speaker she was in the early days.
But mainstream media has not raised questions about Harris’ refusal to grant an interview, despite continued criticism of Biden’s avoidance of the media. She was just perfunctory and said she hoped to finish it before the end of the month. Yet Trump and J.D. Vance have hammered the issue so hard that reporters have been forced to cover the controversy, describing it as “Republicans blaming Harris,” which should be part of their job.
The former president said he would be less divisive after narrowly surviving the horrific assassination attempt, but he quickly abandoned that approach — in classic Trump fashion. He called Harris stupid as a rock and questioned her racial identity in front of the National Association of Black Journalists.
Trump VS. NABJ: Hostility and skepticism towards journalism
Trump also said the Harris campaign was using artificial intelligence to fake large crowds at the Detroit airport, when wider footage proved there were thousands of spectators.
Perhaps he was disturbed by what he said was an illegal hack, in which internal documents were sent to three outlets — Politico, the Washington Post and the New York Times — that declined to release the material.
“I absolutely hate the Fake News Media,” he wrote after Musk’s chat.
But remember: Trump has a much easier path to 270, and will likely win. Harris is attracting new supporters but losing some voters to Biden. She must be seen as a loser. She must navigate policy vagaries and convince voters that the first black female and Asian American president would be a plausible commander-in-chief.
U.S. Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris waves as she boards Air Force Two back to Washington, D.C., at San Francisco International Airport in California on August 11, 2024. (Julia Nyhinson/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Here’s a sign it’s no longer unthinkable: Politico published an article discussing how “progressive national security professionals have sought positions in a possible Kamala Harris administration.”
Time magazine’s cover article was extremely optimistic. Her excitement was “like that of Barack Obama in his early days… She seemed like a perfect fit for the moment: a former prosecutor running against a convicted felon.”
And: “Harris’s brand shift — the happy-warrior attitude, the viral memes, the eye-rolling at Republican ‘weirdos’ — has done what Trump’s opponents have never done: stole the spotlight from him.
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We’ll see how far the new vibe takes her.
